Album Notes

"This is a must-have CD" (Doug Spike, Blue Monday Monthly)."
Track One, "Big Bang Baby Boom" starts out with a bang (literally) and sets the tone for the album. This is clever writing - you notice something new every time you come back to it. The Big Bang Theory is commonly accepted as the beginning of our universe - everything exploding out from an infinitely small, infinitely massive single point. Connect that to the influence that the Baby Boom generation had on our culture, our music, our drugs, well just about everything really. They all get a reference as the song lopes along like some cosmic stampede, with the "Genuine Baby Boomer Chorus" taking over sonically to end things. And that sets up the songs that follow.
"You Can't Sing The Blues With An English Accent" uses delta blues slide guitar to drive home the hilarious truth (according to Nigel Egg, anyway). "It's a crying bloody shame, I don't have a bluesy name, And you can't sing the blues with an English accent."
Track 3, "Lucky Man Blues" is the manifesto song of the album - "I'm such a lucky man, I wonder where these blues come from." On the face of it, we might have achieved the dreams we set out to follow, but isn't there something still missing? It's funny, really, how the majority of blues musicians these days are white middle class men, but so few blues songs are about white middle class situations. The next song, "I Wish I Knew Where Katie Was" hits that same nail squarely on its head. A Miississippi John Hurt style guitar underpins the narrative of a worried father, up late at night waiting for his teenage daughter to get home. "I try to visualize pleasant things but I can't stop the pictures of my daughter in trouble. I wish I knew where Katie was." The song even points out its own silliness (almost every song on ths CD has a humorous side to it) "I hope to God she's all right; I hope I don't kill her when she finally walks in the door..."
Talking of humor, "Going To Home Depot" (a winner of several song-writing contests) puts you in the action. "I'm going to Home Depot one more time. It's my third damn trip today, but I don't mind..." yes, you've been there too!
(to be continued)